FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BARBARA BOXER - PAGE 2

There's plenty of room for "yes men" in the nation's capital. Less for "yes, Ma'am." Sen. Barbara Boxer's suggestion to a general that she'd really rather be called "senator" has raised a few hackles here. "Could you say 'senator' instead of 'ma'am?'" Boxer (D-Calif.) said this week to Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, testifying at a hearing that she was chairing on the levees in New Orleans. "It's just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title. I'd appreciate it." "Yes, Ma'am," and "no, Ma'am," the general had been saying.

Carly Fiorina, whose rocky tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard ended with her firing, is making serious preparations to run next year for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Fiorina's candidacy would be her first foray into elective politics, and it would turn California's Senate contest into one of the most closely watched races in 2010. In a state that tilts strongly toward Democrats, Boxer would be favored to win a fourth term, polls suggest.

Testimony that long tarmac delays are not merely a frustrating inconvenience but a serious health risk, backed by a World Health Organization study, has helped propel toward passage a law requiring airlines to allow passengers to disembark if delays span more than three hours. The 2007 World Health Organization study cited Tuesday at an unofficial airline passenger's rights hearing shows that the risk for developing conditions such as a pulmonary embolism doubles after four hours of seated immobility.

The National Abortion Rights Action League and its California affiliate this month endorsed Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, allowing the candidates access to names of at least 10,000 abortion-rights Republicans.

As I watch the bickering of our elected representatives in Washington, I am reminded of how teachers used to mark elementary school grade cards with conduct comments for parental review. These comments apply primarily to the Senate and especially to Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.): - Talks and annoys others. - Does not play well with others. - Needs help in developing social skills.

Officials in power-strapped California continued to scramble Thursday to find more electricity. At one point the officials said they were close to declaring a Stage 3 alert that could have caused rolling blackouts. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to reveal a much-anticipated plan for scaling back skyrocketing wholesale prices. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and state Senate leader John Burton on Thursday asked U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to investigate whether power generators were conspiring to boost prices and gouge consumers.

California power crisis: Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has been asked to investigate whether possible collusion and other illegal activities among power generators are behind the huge jump in California's electricity and natural gas prices. "We are concerned that market power is being abused by generators in the electricity market to inflate prices and gouge consumers," California Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and California State Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton said in a letter to Reno.

President and First Lady Clinton opened a $2 million weekend fundraising drive for Democrats with a Friday night stop at San Francisco's posh Fairmont Hotel. The $250-a-person reception was one in a string of Friday events that were expected to raise $800,000 for the tight re-election race of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). From here, Clinton headed to Portland, Ore., and a $100,000 late-night reception for freshman Rep. Darlene Hooley. On Saturday, he and Mrs. Clinton were to attend a $10,000-a-couple dinner in a Beverly Hills, Calif.

An environmental group filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Environmental Protection Agency for missing a congressional deadline to impose new standards for arsenic in drinking water. Some Democratic senators, including Barbara Boxer of California, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, endorsed the group's litigation. The suit, filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, challenges EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's decision in March to rescind a Clinton administration effort to substantially lower allowable arsenic levels in drinking water, as well as her failure to meet the June 22 deadline mandated by Congress for proposing new standards.